Medicine
by Satsukimochi
Summary: (Hospital AU) Working in a hospital isn't as easy; having to save lives while trying to deal with yours outside of work. When you're having to save lives while having all eyes on you. When your friend is terminally ill in hospital, and when someone you love dearly ends up hanging between life and death.
1. A Wonderful Morning

(Wow isn't Kagerou Project about teenagers, wow, what are they doing as doctors then, wow wow wow- is what I had in my mind the whole time as I typed this out.)

* * *

Shintarou nearly screamed when he had heard a completely unfamiliar, and ear-piercingly loud song playing as his alarm, and had abruptly fell off the edge of his bed in an attempt to switch it off. His hand missed the button of the alarm clock, and instead, had whacked the medical reports he had done over night, sending all of them flying in the air after sorting them out, and arranging them neatly, ready for work the next morning. "Shit..." was the only thing he could say in the light of this new morning.

"Nii-san! Nii-san!" his sister called from the other side of the door. "Are you okay? I heard a rather gross yelp from my room."

_Ah, so I _did _scream..._ and that was a comment he honestly did not want to hear at the moment- especially not from his sister, out of all people. Shintarou hastily got up, carefully attempting not to trample any of the paperwork scattered across the floor, and immediately switched off the alarm. "Who the hell even set it to _that_?" he grumbled to himself, his ears still suffering from the side effects of heavy metal being played at maximum volume in the morning. As he reached for the doorknob to head to the washroom, the door had unexpectedly opened for him.

Ayano's increasingly worried looking face greeted him from the other side, her red muffler wrapped loosely around her neck, "Shintarou, I heard you yell, so I thought you were in trouble and-"

At that moment, Shintarou wanted to scream from embarrassment, shut the door, and die of humiliation from Ayano seeing him in his pajamas first thing in the morning. "What are you even doing here?" He managed out.

"Oh, Momo-san let me in, but she said you were still sleeping, however I came in anyways, and then I waited for you at the living room, but then I heard you scream and so, here I am!" She laughed quite nervously, though the usual smile of hers was still spread across her mouth. Ayano stared at her feet, before slowly glancing upwards, her cheeks dusted with a rosy pink. "I-I should leave you to get washed up! I-I'll see you in t-the living r-room when you're done so w-we can g-go!" and left Shintarou standing at the doorway, silent and still.

_Well it has been _a great _morning._

* * *

Out in the fresh spring morning breeze, Shintarou and Ayano walked side by side, after hurriedly arranging the messy paperwork in combined effort with Momo, and hastily downing a glass of coke, and a piece of toast bread. "This type of breakfast isn't healthy for you, Shintarou! And you're also a doctor on top of that, you should know that!"

"I bet you would also eat the same type of breakfast as me if you were in my place."

"Hey, at least I wouldn't be having coke in the morning!" Ayano stuck her tongue out childishly, before giggling softly, making Shintarou sigh. _Ah, she doesn't seem to understand the wonders of coke! Though truthfully, it is unhealthy._ "Shintarou, Shintarou, did you wear your watch today?" Shintarou proudly lifted up the long sleeves of his jacket to reveal a simple, red digital watch around his pale wrist. "Did you bring your glasses? You know, just in case, I mean," Shintarou reached in to his messenger bag, and fished out a leather glasses case, shaking it to prove that the content was in it as well. "Did you definitely bring your paperwork?"

"Ayano, you were with me when we packed it into my bag,"

"Did you bring any reference books with you?"

"I have it all at my office in the hospital already."

"Your phone?"

"Never will forget it," Shintarou said, patting his pocket, knocking against the hard plastic casing of his phone.

"Wallet?"

"That's almost a basic thing no one should ever forget,"

"Er... coke?"

And Shintarou immediately stopped in his tracks, paling slightly as he remembered that he had forgotten to pack his beloved fizzy drink with him to work. "Shit... I left at home in the fridge..." he whimpered softly, hiding his head in his hands. He wouldn't have made it a habit to bring a coke bottle to him every day at work if the vending machines at the hospital had actually sold coke- however it unfortunately didn't, and only coffee, fruit-flavored water, vitamin water, Pocari sweat and green tea filled up the slots of the machines.

"I-I'm pretty sure you can suffice with vitamin water or something?" Ayano suggested.

"No way, vitamin water tastes weird."

"I happen to actually like vitamin water! It's probably because you tried it after drinking a fizzy drink. Those two tastes don't go well together!"

"Since when did you become a drink connoisseur?"

"Ever since I began hanging around with you at your work," Ayano giggled, and soon Shintarou joined her with near-silent laughter.

"You know, you don't have to keep hanging around me during work," Shintarou said, glancing at Ayano for about two seconds, for turning away again. His inability to keep eye contact with her was bound to stir up some form of teasing with Momo and his co workers. "Don't you want to get a job soon too, Ayano? You can't keep being unemployed forever..."

Ayano put a finger to her lips, and winked, "Who said I was planning to be unemployed forever?" she slowly reached for Shintarou's hand, causing Shintarou to jerk slightly from it, from the feeling of her petite fingers wrapped around his hand, warm against his cold self. "Hey Shintarou, I was planning to-" but before Ayano could finish her sentence, a blood curdling shriek was heard, followed by another scream, however the final scream was more coherent, as if to be calling out a name.

"HIYORI!"

Shintarou and Ayano instantly turned their heads to the source of the voice, their eyes immediately widening in shock when they saw the scene ahead of them. Blood pooled around the stilll body of a girl at the edge of a truck, a boy rushing up to her immediately, cradling her in his arms, while crying loudly for help. People began to slowly gather around this scene, all with shocked expressions on their faces.

What pissed Shintarou off the most, was that none of them had bothered to help the young boy.

Running as fast as he could, Shintarou headed towards the boy and the girl, with Ayano following behind him as well, her red scarf flying behind her like two red wings or a cape. _Why the hell didn't I do well in P.E? _He thought to himself, sighing in relief when he managed to get to the children on time. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Shintarou asked in his calmest voice. _Well, no duh, Shintarou, there's a dying girl right there!_

_"_H-Hiyori, s-she..." the boy sniffled before bursting into tears again, before being comforted by Ayano, who had immediately taken him in her arms, and began to hush him softly. _This is why I didn't become a children's pediatrician, _Shintarou noted, before shrugging off his bag, and rolling up his sleeves. He carefully placed two fingers on the girl's wrist, and leaned in to listen to her breathing.

It was weak, raggedy, but it was _there_. The girl was still living, but she was dying. "Ayano, quick, call the ambulance, this girl will probably only have about 20 minutes left to live unless we get her to proper medical care already."

* * *

I tried? Kind of? At AU-ing. I'm not very used to AU-ing, and had turned to my friend for help with prompts. Originally, it was going to be a police force AU, but then I changed it to a hospital, doctor AU- mainly because I had recently watching a Clinic on the Sea, and was probably influenced by that LOL

Thank you for reading!


	2. Long Hours

(Woah how do I find out how a *insert specific name* operation is carried out properly so I can write about it?- Is what I had on mind when I was first thinking about this AU. Thank you soooo much everyone, for the follows, favorites and reviews! And also to answer the guest's review; Yeah Shintarou, and most of the gang should be in their 20's in this AU, but Hibiya and Hiyori are still their own ages LOL)

* * *

"Hiyori, Hiyori, Hiyori, Hiyori, Hiyori..." the boy had muttered throughout the course of the journey to the hospital in the ambulance. Ayano watched as the boy tightly gripped the girl's pale hand, holding it close to him. "Hiyori... please survive, please survive," He said, before breaking into tears again, warm tears spilling over their hands. Ayano watched Shintarou stare blankly into the distance, watching the girl very carefully, beads of sweat rolling down his face, then turned to watch the boy again.

Ayano pulled the boy in towards her, and wrapped her arms around him, soothing him, patting him, comforting him. "It's going to be okay, this nice person here will definitely save your friend, okay?" _He'll be the hero, he'll be the one to save her. _

_He'll be the one to give you happiness._

* * *

"Hurry, get her inside to the surgery room, _now_," Shintarou ordered, the moment the ambulance had came to a complete stop, and immediately jumped out of the ambulance doors, and rushed off into the hospital, not taking a second to look behind. Ayano was probably with the boy right now, probably trying to get him to leave the girl so she can be saved, considering how he had never let go of her hand during the whole journey.

Shintarou whizzed past nurses, doctors, went up the elevator, and then sprinted down the corridor to his office. He shrugged off his jacket, quickly fetched himself a surgical mask and a pair of rubber gloves, hastily wore the gown, and immediately rushed out. Luckily the surgery room was somewhere near to his office, but he needed to make a quick stop along the way.

When he found the room he was looking for, he peered inside, and lowered the mask from his mouth, "Hey, Kido, Seto, we've got a girl who's going to go into surgery right now, and we kind of need help here with anesthetics and man-power," and before he sped off again, sure that they would follow, he yelled, "Hey Kano, how are you doing there?" and sprinted off.

"That was a rather rushed greeting," Kano sniffed, watching his two childhood friends put on their gear, ready to go to the surgery room with Shintarou. "Good luck saving the girl! How about a nice goodbye kiss before you go off, Kido?" and a slipper was flung at his forehead, instantly rebounding off, landing on the cold, white hospital floor. To make up for the slipper, Seto quickly gave Kano a pat on the back as a quick apology, before rushing off to catch up with Kido, leaving Kano sitting on his bed, rubbing the sore spot on his forehead. "That's not how you should treat a patient! You should be more like Seto, more caring and gentle!" he playfully scolded, directed at the girl who had disappeared behind the door.

* * *

The surgery room was brightly lit, causing all of the metallic equipment in the room to shine brightly.

Various surgical instruments were laid out on a blue sheet, each carefully washed and cleaned before entering the room to be used. A monitor played the robotic sound of a slowing rhythm, its flimsy wires all led to the dying girl lying on the operating table, connecting to her with adhesives. The girl's eyes were shut tight, her face almost peaceful, her mouth covered with a mask, with tubes connecting the anesthesia machine resting at the head of the table. A tight cuff was strapped around her wrist, taking her blood pressure. And over her body was larger, blue sheet.

Shintarou carefully lifted the sheet with his gloved hands, quickly examined what he had already examined through his tinted glasses. He gave a nod to his co-workers, and stared longer at Kido and Seto who were standing next to him. "It's exactly as I've said. You guys know what to do right?" Everyone nodded. Shintarou could faintly hear the muffled sounds of the boy and Ayano outside the theater. "Well, let's save a life."

* * *

Outside Ayano was continuously trying to console the distressed boy, but with little success. Right now, in that room, Shintarou, Kido, Seto and a few others were trying to save his friend's life. She prayed for him. She prayed for her. She prayed for everyone in that room. "It's my fault, it's my fault Hiyori got hit by that truck," the boy whimpered.

"No it's not! Don't blame something like this on yourself. This was no one's fault. It was just an accident,"

"Yeah it was..." The boy sniffed, "It's all because I said something weird to her, she ran off and didn't look at the light, and then she just-"

Ayano held the boy's hand tightly. Silence enveloped the hall, save for the soft sniffling and sobbing. "What's your name?" Ayano asked, suddenly, unsure herself how she managed to ask such a question in this kind of situation. The sniffling had stopped though, and incoherent mumbling replaced it instead. "Huh?"

"H-Hibiya. Hibiya Amamiya. It's weird."

"Hibiya huh~" Ayano repeated, registering his name into her head. She gave him a gentle smile. "It's not weird at all! And if I'm right, the kanji for it is pretty cool! The 'rain' and 'palace'- rain palace, isn't it? Isn't that cool?" she said, in an attempt to brighten up the mood. Ayano's heart became warm and fuzzy, inside, she was exploding with tiny happy fireworks when she saw Hibiya smile, slightly, at her remark. "Want to go get a drink or something, Hibiya-kun? I think there's a really good cafe inside this hospital,"

"But Hiyori-" Hibiya began, and stopped. His gaze turned towards the surgery room, then faced the ground.

"I know what! How about we grab a snack to celebrate her surviving?" Ayano suggested. Hibiya's eyes widened immediately upon hearing her suggestion. "You know why we should? Because I believe that the nice people inside there will save your friend. I can definitely count on them to do so." and she held her hand out, smiling brightly. And finally, though at first with slight hesitation, Hibiya took her hand.

* * *

Beads of sweat formed at Shintarou's forehead, slowly then rolling down his face, slightly staining his mask. Sweat covered his back, and his palms. It was always nerve wrecking in the surgery room. "Dilators, please," he called to the back, holding out his hand, waiting for the cold metal to touch his hands. Once he felt it, he immediately grasped it, and worked his way into the narrow passage, to the site of internal bleeding. _We have to be able to do this, we have to be able to do this, we have to be able to do this._

He quickly switched to the retractors, and swiftly began to spread the tissue covering the site. "Okay. I'm in."

On that note Kido stepped in, and began to work on closing up the wound inside the body. Shintarou looked away, feeling slightly sick in the stomach. He wearily watched the other surgeons working hard to treat the other damaged parts of the body. He could see the girl's heart beat getting steadier, and faster. _This will work right? _And a firm hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder. Shintarou learnt not to suddenly overreact to Seto's sudden shoulder tapping during surgery, and kept his composure, though he was pretty sure that the fact he couldn't exactly handle the gore quite well was not well hidden. "Are you okay, Shintarou-san?" Seto whispered, and Shintarou only answered with a slight nod and a shrug.

At the corner of his eye, Shintarou could see Kido slightly paling at staring at the opening at the side of the girl's body, her movements slightly trembling, and she struggled to keep herself steady. Her eyes were slightly wide in fear, and she looked sick. He couldn't blame her, it was still pretty hard to get used to, looking at all the blood and gore. "Kido, I'll stitch it up once you're done." Seto said, slightly muffled by the mask. Kido's eyebrows furrowed, and her pace began to get faster, and faster.

After a long while, Kido stepped away from the body, and Seto swapped in, swiftly beginning to stitch up the opening with the suture. He focused very carefully at the gash, wanting to not mess up and stitch too tightly, or wrongly, that it would mess it up completely. He was going at the stitching for ages, whilst Shintarou and Kido went to help out with the other surgeons. When he had finished, he took a sharp intake of breath, before relaxing, and placing the suture on the 'used instruments' tray.

* * *

It was about 4 pm or 5 pm when the nurses pushed out Hiyori on the bed, a thin plastic tube running into her hand, connecting to a bag of fluid and there was another tube, connecting to a bag of blood. Blood type A, Hibiya had said, before he saw his friend being rushed in to the operating theater.

Outside was Ayano and Hibiya, both waiting and both in a brighter mood compared to the morning, after Ayano had offered to take him to the cafe downstairs for a snack, then to the nearby shops for some quick window shopping, before arriving back at the hospital with a bag of goodies, and unopened cans of drinks. A look of relief flooded Hibiya's face, and he quickly stood up to silently greet his sleeping friend. "The surgery was successful, if that's what you were wondering," Shintarou said from the exit of the theater, walking out, looking exhausted. Behind him were Kido and Seto, both equally as exhausted as him.

"Thank god," Ayano breathed out, before rushing to hug Shintarou, then Kido, and Seto. "So how did Tsubomi and Kousuke take the gore and stuff?" she asked Shintarou, while glancing back at her two step siblings.

Seto and Kido exchanged brief glances with weary smiles. "Kido handled it pretty well!" Seto said, brightly.

"Well, its not as if glancing at a little blood could do anything to me," Kido replied with a small smile.

_There it is! The chuunibyou! _Shintarou exclaimed in his mind, remembering Kido's face during the surgery. "I need coke..." Shintarou muttered, falling down on to the nearest seat he could find. Slowly blinking himself to sleep, he snapped back to life when he saw a glistening red can appear in front of his eyes. Ayano smiled, waving the can of coke in her hands. "Is that what I think it is...?"

"Yep," Ayano laughed.

Shintarou could almost see sparkles appearing around the can, and most importantly Ayano. He reached out to the can with weak hands, before taking it away, holding it tight in his grasp. "T-Thanks." And he immediately opened the top, and began to savor the taste of the sugary fizzy drink running down coolly against his dry throat. Ayano giggled in response, and began handing Kido and Seto a grape flavored drink, and a melon flavored drink respectively.

"Hey. Hey mister." Hibiya said, tapping Shintarou's shoulder repeatedly and quite painfully, until it began to annoy him. Shintarou peered down at Hibiya, still drinking from the wondrous can of coke. "Thanks for saving Hiyori." and then went to thank Kido and Seto, then Ayano, and rushed off to find his friend's room in the hospital.

"Doesn't he know that my shoulders hurt after spending those long hours trying to save that friend of his?" though inside, Shintarou was undoubtedly happy.

* * *

AAAaaaa I probably made some characters a bit OC u _ u

I spent some time looking through surgical equipment (and found some rather gruesome pictures) and also went to double check Hiyori's blood type. Surgical staples are not a nice thing to look at LOL

Aaaanndd thank youuuu for reading!


	3. Unknown Feeling

Yo long time no update!? (Two weeks I think...)

Recently I've injured my right hand, so since I'm unable to draw much, I'll turn over to writing to pass time hehehe

Hope you enjoy this chapter! Mainly focusing on the Mekameka trio ww this chapter is slightly romance fluff, though the genres listed are totally not romance u v u;;

* * *

The cheerful voice of Seto's and the loud clanking of dishes against a table easily woke Kido up. She glanced out of the window of the small apartment she and Seto shared- though once Kano was also a resident of their house, until he was moved to the hospital. The azure sky seemed pale in the spring morning, and the emerald green leaves looked golden at one glance, but back to its usually vivid green at another. It never seemed to show its true color with each glance.

Kido rubbed her eyes hastily, before reaching for the hair tie that was laid on the bedside table. It became a daily routine for her to tie her long, dark green hair up, and then drag herself out of bed, to the bathroom, and stare blankly at herself in the mirror before continuing on to brush her teeth, and refresh herself for the long day ahead of her. When she had finished dressing up, and checking her appearance in the mirror (not that she cared about it much), she walked out into the brightly lit living room, where Seto greeted her with a big smile.

"Good morning, Kido! I've made some hot chocolate, if you're in the mood for something sweet in the morning," Seto said, brightly. He grinned, brightly, as if the sun had somehow manifested its way to become a grin on a person's face. He sat on one side of the wooden dining table, staring straight at Kido, and two mugs of hot chocolate stood on the table- one left idly on one side, with steam arising from it, and another was wrapped warmly in Seto's hands.

"Mmm..." Kido replied absently, and made her way to the kitchen, where she began to steam rice for their breakfast, and snack today. The rice was warm and fluffy, and sticky, in Kido's hands as she began to mold the rice into a small ball, then adding seasoning and filling, before closing the ball shape, and rolling it in a bit of seaweed.

"Ah, hold on a second, Kido," and before Kido could respond, a hand reached for her hair, the locks that were close to her face. Seto stood next to her, leaning forward, running his fingers through a lock of her hair, before backing away with a smile. "Sorry about that! There was a wad of rice sticking in your hair." And he returned back to his seat at the dining table.

Kido hadn't realized she had been holding in her breath. Or that she went completely still. Her ears were drumming with incessant beating.

* * *

The hospital was rather quiet, still and peaceful- it seemed out of place and unusual, so much so, that both Kido and Seto had to check whether they went to the right work place. "Morning!" greeted a few of their co-workers, and some nurses giggled like little girls when Seto had replied back to them.

"W-Was there something on my face?" Seto asked, worriedly, unsure of why they had been giggled after he had responded. Kido shrugged, and didn't bother answering his question. Even though Seto at times, was really good at telling what was on someone's mind by just watching them for a short while, his oblivious attitude to all that was questionable. "Should we go visit him?"_  
_

"I think that idiot had enough visits from us for two days." Kido muttered, slipping on her white coat. "And the guy in charge of check ups for children isn't here today, and I'm being placed in his shift. I kind of need you... to... help..." she trailed off in her sentence, finding it questionably hard to admit that she needed Seto's help. She wasn't really good with children, and it was more of Seto who could brighten up the mood any time, and read the atmosphere without saying something ridiculously stupid unlike a certain someone. _Though admittedly it's kind of... boring without him._

_"_Ah, she came again today," Seto commented, glancing away from the paperwork in his hands, looking straight at the entrance. At the entrance, stood a young lady, with dark messy hair tied into two low twin tails. The expression on her face looked very familiar, but it was hard to place why it looked familiar. "Probably going to visit Haruka-san as usual."

Kido quickly glanced away from paperwork, "What's her name?"

"Uh... Taka... Takashi? Wait no, it's Takane. I remember one of the nurses saying her name a week or so ago."

"Oh..." Kido said, without much interest. At the corner of her eye, she watched as Takane quietly walk off to the elevator, carrying a small laptop bag, with two game console controllers dangling dangerously outside its compartment.

* * *

"All right, you're pretty much okay!" Seto exclaimed cheerfully, the moment Kido had leaned away from examining the kid. He took the words right out of her mouth, except she could never say it in such a way like him. Better to send the kid off with a smile, rather than a gloomy expression.

The kid gave a giant grin, "Thank you!" and gently pushed himself off the bed. "Oh yeah miss, you're really pretty." he said, facing Kido, and then happily ran out of the sliding doors, to his parent.

Kido froze, staring wide eyed after the kid, completely lost for words. She felt her cheeks heat up immensely. _P-P-P-P-Pretty-?! _She quickly turned to look at Seto, who had a wider grin than before on his face, and his cheeks were slightly dusted in light pink. He glanced down at Kido, then glanced away again. "C-Can we not mention this in front of Kano-"

"But you are quite pretty, Kido." and a purple slipper was flung straight at Seto's head, and it immediately rebounded off and on to the floor. "H-Hey! It was a compliment!" but Kido currently didn't care. Her ears were constantly pounding, and her chest didn't feel right. _Calm down, calm down. _"I can take over the main check ups now if you want, until you calm down?" Seto offered, almost as if he had heard her thoughts. Or maybe Kido was just an open book.

"Y-Yeah." Kido unwrapped the stethoscope around her neck, and handed it Seto, who then took her place, as she took his place, except slightly further away. If she could withstand operating someone, she could calm down from this, right? "I'm going to go out for some air. I'll be back in 10 minutes." she said quickly, and sauntered out of the check up room, and walked hastily down the corridor, passing patients, nurses, janitors and the large windows that stretched all the way till the end, showcasing the hospital's miniature garden.

And before she knew it, Kido found herself standing outside Kano's room. She took a deep breath, and patted her cheeks, and walked inside.

"Good morning Kido! Why didn't you visit me? You know how much I miss you two like how you miss me," Kano smiled, his eyes following Kido's figure, watching her throw herself onto the nearby chair. "Any serious cases? Did you throw any slippers at anyone, because you seem to be missing one." Kido glanced down at her feet, and nearly shrieked and cowered in embarrassment when she realized she had been walking around with only one slipper on her feet. "Awww am I no longer worthy of your slippers? Did you find someone else to love?"

Kido didn't reply, but just glanced to the side, staring out of the window. The sky was a pale, powdery blue, not quite azure, though not quite pastel. The leaves outside constantly changed shades of green and gold with each glance. She was in the mood for some noise, she wanted something to just distract her from what she felt earlier. She didn't want to admit she wanted to hear Kano, see Kano or talk to him. "So, what ridiculous adventures did you encounter for the past nights?"

Kano smiled like a Cheshire cat, and opened his mouth, proceeding to tell her a story of his run-in with a nurse. Soon enough, Kido began to smile as well.

* * *

Sorry lame chapter u v u;;;;

I think I made the characters a bit OOC here u v u;;;; I think some things were a bit fast paced u v u;;;;;

In the meanwhile, the Kagerou Project anime has been supposedly announced for April 2014 (BREATHES HEAVILY THIS MEANS _SEIYUUS SOON)_

Thank you for reading up to this point! wwwwwww


	4. Monitor beats

Uwaaa... I'm so sleepy... sorry I didn't update yesterday;; The server for wasn't working for some reason? So I couldn't login and enter in my account;;; anyways please enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Kido woke up with a loud yawn, and as she soon as she realized she was in a public place, she immediately closed her mouth, her eyes darting around hoping that none of her co-workers heard. _Wait... public place? I thought I was in Kano's room?_

"Good morning, Kido! Though it actually isn't morning, but... did you have a good sleep?" Seto greeted. He was seated right next to her, holding a white plastic bag filled with food inside. Kido's stomach grumbled at the sight of it, and Seto, noticing that minor detail, laughed softly.

"How did I get here?"

"It would be kind of suspicious if I carried you," Seto said nervously, "Kano helped me put you on a wheelchair so that I could push you to the lounge instead. You had more checkups after this break, so I wanted to make sure you had enough energy to keep you going- and of course, to make sure you were awake and ready for the job." He smiled. Kido bit into her rice ball, chomping up the sticky rice, seasoning, seaweed and filling all together. "Oh yeah, I won't be joining you this round- I've got a job to take care of apparently,"

"What is it?" She asked, in between bites.

"There's a new patient being admitted in today- according to some nurses, she isn't very open- or so I heard."

"How did she get admitted here, then? This isn't exactly a mental hospital..."

Seto shrugged, and took a sip from the can of pocari sweat in his hands, "I guess I'll have to find out!"

* * *

The sound of a loud gargling shriek played through the computer speakers, followed by a terrible jingle, that somehow complemented the theme of the game flashing on the screen. A white haired avatar was suddenly displayed on the screen, then splattered in blood, dying his snow colored hair a dark red- almost black. A young man stretched, and flopped back onto the puffy pillows behind him,"Ah... you beat me again, Takane! Can we play once more?"

"You're going to get beaten anyways," Takane replied nonchalantly, setting down her controller on the bedside table, a small smile spreading across her usually grumpy face. These kind of days, when she was with Haruka, were the days she enjoyed the most. Just the two of them, like it has always been. And she would cherish these days- as she knew she wouldn't have long until she has to let him go. "How's the stay been though?"

"Pretty good! The food's not that bad either!" Haruka laughed. "Ayano-san often comes to visit whenever Shintarou-san does his checkups on me. Sometimes she brings really delicious things- like barbeque!"

Gosh, he sounds like a kid right now, Takane thought to herself, though this talk just warmed her heart up- and the feeling of it was- quite weird. "So did that annoying idiot say anything about- you know... how much time... you have left?" and it was this kind of talk that brought her down ever so slightly.

Haruka frowned, "Nothing- maybe he did tell me, but I just didn't remember."

Takane let out a sigh, and sank down onto her chair. _He probably doesn't have a lot left... and I should tell him _that _soon._"Takane? What's wrong?" Haruka asked concernedly, staring at her with a worried look.

_I guess my emotions show very easily! _Takane grumbled mentally to herself, reminding herself to practice not being an open book. "I-It's nothing, it's nothing..." Her cheeks reddened slowly at her next sudden prompt that might continue on the precious conversation, "H-Hey H-Haruka d-d-d-do you l-l-l-like a-a-anyone-"

"Of course!"

"WHAT." Takane nearly shrieked, and jerked back, away from Haruka in an instant. "W-WHO-"

"Hmm, I like Ayano-san... I like Shintarou-san... Oh yeah! Those three people who also come sometimes to visit me! Though one of them's a patient so he can't do much... uh... I like my mom of course, my dad... my family basically!" Haruka exclaimed, counting the people he liked with his fingers, his face thoughtful, as if he was carefully thinking about the question, despite him answering it in a totally different context to what Takane meant. "Oh yeah! I like you, Takane!"

Takane felt her face heat up immediately, though she knew that he didn't mean it that way, her heart was pumping rapidly. Her expression was twisted in shock and embarrassment. She stared at Haruka, and it was not long till she looked away.

"You don't like me?" Haruka asked, with a sad tone at the edge of his voice.

"NO IT'S NOT THAT!" Takane yelled instantly, jumping up from her seat. Haruka stared at her wide-eyed, slightly shocked by the immediate, and loud response, "I-It's not that! I-I mean- I lik- I-I-" but her thought to be confession was interrupted by Haruka's cheerful laughter ringing through the room. "W-What are you laughing at?!"

"I'm just happy that Takane likes me!" Haruka said with a smile. Takane opened her mouth to fire back at him, but suddenly his cold, thin hand was pressed against her warm forehead. Takane squeaked quietly, and nearly froze in place at the feeling of Haruka touching her forehead. His other hand patted her burning cheeks, cooling it down immensely. "Wow, did you catch a fever, Takane? Your face is burning!"

"I-It's not that you idiot!" Takane screamed, and her hands immediately shot up to pull Haruka's cold hands from her face. But before she could even do so, those hands fell, and dangled limply over the bed. "H-Haruka?" _No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no- _Takane forced herself to follow the thin hands up to the arms, and to the face of a near unconscious Haruka. "Haruka? HARUKA!"

Haruka squinted at Takane, reaching up to touch her, his breathing getting irregular and muted. Suddenly he went limp again.

Takane's eyes were welled up with tears, some beginning to stream down her face already. She immediately grabbed the hospital phone, and began to call for the nurse. Her mind was running in circles, and all she could do at the moment as the nurse would arrive, is to grip firmly onto Haruka's cold hands, and hope that he would live to see another day, and that this wasn't the end.

Just then, a dark green, long haired doctor and a taller dark haired guy ran in, both immediately reading the situation, and beginning to get to work. "Please stay calm. We'll take him to CPR and try to start his heart again. If it doesn't work, we'll take him to the surgery room." The green haired doctor told Takane, as her assistant began to push Haruka out into the corridor. Before she left, the doctor placed a reassuring hand on Takane's shoulder. "Don't worry, he'll live to see another day."

* * *

im so sleepy gosh dangit

i'll probably go to sleep now u v u

anyways, thank you for getting up to this point!


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